Prof. Moore One of Three Lead Counsel in Historic Racial Profiling Ruling

August 13, 2013

Adjunct Professor Jonathan Moore, one of the three lead counsel in Floyd v. City of New York, together with Darius Charney of the Center for Constitutional Rights, commented on a federal court judge’s 198 page ruling on August 12, finding that the New York City Police Department’s stop-question-and-frisk practices violate the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution:

“The Court correctly recognized that the City’s unconstitutional practices date back to at least 1999, and that the overwhelming evidence at trial demonstrated that the City expressly relies on race – not reasonable suspicion – to make decisions about whom to stop and frisk. The opinion sends a strong, national message that racial profiling is unconstitutional as well as devastating to communities of color.”

To remedy the widespread constitutional violations, the judge ordered a court-appointed monitor to oversee a series of reforms to NYPD policing practices. The court’s ruling follows a 10-week trial that concluded on May 20. The class action lawsuit, Floyd v. City of New York, was brought by Prof. Moore and his firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Covington & Burling, LLP.

A FLOYD CASE FOOTNOTE: The historic Floyd case was originally filed by CUNY School of Law graduate Andrea Costello ‘98. (See page 26 of the original Floyd complaint). Ms. Costello was recently in the headlines when she won one of the decade’s most notable reproductive rights victories when a federal court struck down age restrictions on access to the “morning after pill.” Read more about the decision.